Map of health painting by Odra Noel

Map of Health, Odra Noel, paint on silk, Wellcome Collection, London.

Working Group

Health Beyond Medicine

In recent years, conceptions of health have been challenged on multiple levels, not only, but also in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical interventions appear as one among a variety of factors that contribute to priority setting in health and wellbeing, from vaccination to laboratory capacities, and from the small scale of individual experiences to global policies. Health Beyond Medicine brings into conversation fields that are often siloed in academic and policy contexts: global public health, biomedical sciences, and patient and health activism. Our aim is to explore analytical pathways in history and philosophy of medicine and establish productive approaches to the emergence, circulation, and transformation of priority setting in health and wellbeing.

Summer Semester 2023

  • 24.05.2023 15:00-16:30, MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin
    Hanna Lucia Worliczek, “A Cosmopolitan Parasite: Tracking Toxoplasma Between Laboratory Diagnostics and Regionalized Public Health Measures.”
  • 02.06.2023 11:00-12:30, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Raum 5028, Friedrichstraße 191, 10117 Berlin
    Alila Brossard Antonielli, “Latrines, vaccines, and socialist doctors: Health in Mozambique’s weekly magazine O Tempo.”
  • 09.06.2023 11:00-12:30, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik in der Medizin, Charité Berlin, Thielallee 71, 14195 Berlin 
    Tatjana Buklijas, “The fetus and the lamb: The many histories of the Auckland antenatal steroid clinical trial“ (forthcoming book by Branka Bogdan, Tatjana Buklijas, and Charlotte Greenhalgh).

Participation is open to all. Please register by sending an email to Birgitta v. Mallinckrodt (officekeuck@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de) and indicate which sessions you want to join.

Summer Term 2023 Colloquium Poster

Winter Semester 2022-2023

  • 10.11.2022, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Friedrichstraße 191, 10117 Berlin
    Alisher Latypov, “Islamic Tibb and Socialist Biomedicine: Trajectories, Resiliency and Appeal of Indigenous Medical Practitioners in Soviet Central Asia."
  • 08.12.2022, MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin
    Alfred Freeborn, “Between Transcultural Disease and International Diagnostic Concept: The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (1965-1973).”
  • 12.01.2023, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik in der Medizin, Charité Berlin, Thielallee 71, 14195 Berlin 
    Anja Suter, “Local Struggles, Transnational Bonds: The Indian Women’s Health Movement and its Campaigns against High Dose EP-Drugs and Long-acting Contraceptives (1980-1995).“

WS 2022-2023 Colloquium Poster

Past Events

Islamic Tibb and Socialist Biomedicine: Trajectories, Resiliency and Appeal of Indigenous Medical Practitioners in Soviet Central Asia

MORE

Between Transcultural Disease and International Diagnostic Concept: The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (1965-1973)

MORE

Local Struggles, Transnational Bonds: The Indian Women’s Health Movement and its Campaigns against High Dose EP-Drugs and Long-acting Contraceptives (1980-1995)

MORE

A Cosmopolitan Parasite: Tracking Toxoplasma Between Laboratory Diagnostics and Regionalized Public Health Measures

MORE

Latrines, Vaccines, and Socialist Doctors: Health in Mozambique’s Weekly Magazine "O Tempo"

MORE

The Fetus and the Lamb: The Many Histories of the Auckland Antenatal Steroid Clinical Trial

MORE

In Search of Biomedical Validity: Towards a Cross-Disciplinary History of Validation Practices

MORE

Patient Activism in the Public Sphere

MORE

Global Health on the Move

MORE

Health Beyond Medicine Workshop: Endings and After

MORE

Media